We love visitors and new members.
Our next meeting is Monday January 21st at 6.00-8.00pm at Number 18, St Helier St Abbotsford. This is the old farm house near the front gate of the Collingwood Children’s Farm. We’ll be meeting here for the summer daylight saving months.
If you’re a member, the agenda will be on the Members’ page. If you’re not a member yet, please come along and say hello. If you’d like more info about the branch, send us an email to CollingwoodCWA@gmail.com.
Hemp Crops for a Thirsty Land?
See our article in the latest edition of Victorian Country Woman magazine, December 2018. We’ve been trialling hemp textiles for use in the kitchen. There’s more information and instructions on our Earth Bag Challenge page.
State CWA Christmas Fare, Saturday 1 Dec – Umina, Toorak
Our last event for 2018 was our stall at the annual Christmas Fare held at CWA Vic HQ in Toorak. It was a beautiful sunny day and there was a lot of interest in our handmade, plastic-free craft.
We sold our beeglad, hemp scrubbies, hemp dishcloths, repurposed feedbag totes, Xmas bunting and other handmade Xmas items.
Thanks to Amy for organising the stall and everyone who made things and helped on the day. Special thanks to Rach for massive Xmas bunting effort!
If you bought some of our crafts and are looking for the instructions to make yourself or to find the materials. Click through to our Earth Bag page.
Collingwood CWA is a wholehearted supporter of the Uluru Statement From the Heart.
We believe it is a powerful and moving Statement and should be read by as many Australians as possible. We support the campaign for a First Nations Voice: Put it to the People.
As part of the week of action for a First Nations Voice (4-10 November 2018), our members handed out copies of the Statement at the farmers’ market at the Collingwood Children’s farm on Saturday morning 10 November.
You can read the Statement here
Here’s our set-up at the farm with our new banner…
And because we’re CWA, we gave away a heart-shaped shortbread with each copy.
See more pics in our photo gallery. We had a couple of special visitors…
In National Childrens Week, a book launch ‘Jumbuck’s Misadventure’ by Sally Nowlan.
Thursday 25th October, Collingwood Childrens Farm Barn, 18 St Heliers St, Abbotsford
We met the author and even patted a lamb….(more on our Events page)
Sharing our Surplus
We’ve got a plan afoot for a local food share following our Barn Yarn “Sharing our Surplus’. We’ll keep you posted on our Events page when the Blueprint is finalised.
Gender Equality
Guest speaker for our September meeting was – our own CWA member, Paula Hanasz. Paula participated in a jury of more than 100 Victorians who gathered to discuss the Andrews Labor Government’s proposed Gender Equality Bill.
The draft of the Gender Equality Bill proposes “that Victorian Government departments, public sector entities like hospitals and TAFEs, and local governments plan, promote, set targets for and report on gender equality.
The Citizens’ Jury is being asked to consider a critical element of the Bill –the setting of quotas for women in public sector leadership positions. The Jury will recommend what gender equality quotas are fair, and how they can best be implemented.”
For those interested in the Victorian government Citizens’ Jury on gender equality, or who missed Paula’s talk here is a summary Paula wrote for Women’s Agenda: https://womensagenda.com.au/politics/a-citizens-jury-in-victoria-managed-to-reach-a-consensus-on-gender-quotas/
We also commend the article on quotas by Chris Wallace from ANU in the Conversation.
SisterWorks
The dynamic Luz Restrepo from SisterWorks in Richmond was our guest speaker at our August meeting. Sisterworks is a not-for-profit that exists to help women migrants, asylum seekers and refugees become financially independent and happily settled in Australia. The social enterprise currently supports 171 women from 55 countries, including 88 ‘Entrepreneurs’ – who create and sell their wares with the remaining sisters supporting this effort behind the scenes.
Collingwood CWA was delighted to make a $1800 contribution to their work from the proceeds of our recent cupcakes and crackles stall at the Collingwood Children’s Farm Solstice Bonfire.
Barn Yarns
We had a great Sunday afternoon on the 12th August with our friends at the Collingwood Children’s Farm at our first Barn Yarn, sitting by the fire eating scones and jam, and discussing how fashion can be reimagined for a sustainable world: Consume Cake Not Clothes.
More pics on our Events page.
Magazine article
Read all about our Night of Cake and Community Action in the July 2018 Victorian Country Woman magazine…
Local Somali Weavers
At our June meeting it was such a pleasure to welcome some talented local ladies. Muhubo demonstrated Somali weaving techniques and shared her stories.
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